


Blue Butterflies

by Missing_Ninja_History



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series, 全职高手 - 蝴蝶蓝 | Quánzhí Gāoshǒu - Húdié Lán, 全职高手 | The King's Avatar (Cartoon), 全职高手 | The King's Avatar (Donghua)
Genre: Dont copy to another site, Gen, I swear that not intended, happy as party members, mainly persona 5 inspired, may seem like allye, only has some parts from persona, we're going to fix people one palace at a time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2019-12-25 08:26:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18257522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missing_Ninja_History/pseuds/Missing_Ninja_History
Summary: In his hand was a phone.Covered in many scratches and large cracks.He'll discover this later.





	1. Blue Butterfly Trails

**Author's Note:**

> I blame Discord for enabling but not as much as I enable them. These chapters might be little or may just turn out to be my usual 4.5-5k versions, who knows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> minor grammar edits: 18/8/2019

"Captain Ye, you should look after yourself more," tutted Wu Xuefeng as he came over to Ye Xiu with his coming to Ye Xiu's back, just as warm and comforting as it used to be. He had miss this.

He was having an odd dream. He knew it was a dream because Su Muqiu was there and so was Wu Xuefeng. Both of them were gone from his life right now so he knew he was dreaming. Su Muqiu looked as young as he remembered, just on the edge of adult and not adult; old but far too young. Ye Xiu experienced grief all over again. Wu Xuefeng was young looking as well, but he still looked older than Ye Xiu was. Both of them were smiling.

"Hey Brother Ye! What are you doing here? I thought that you would be too above coming to this little place since you're so famous," sneered Liu Hao, unfortunately he, too, was here, wherever here was. He and Wu Xuefeng were wearing matching outfits. Both wearing the Excellent Era jackets and pants. It shouldn't be so jarring to see them dressed the same since it was the basic Excellent Era outfit but they weren't in the slightest similar which made it seem jarring.

Wu Xuefeng had the aura of a NPC; anonymous in a way that spies wished that they could be. He was so bland that many just called him a person but Ye Xiu knew that his true talents lay in the way he could coordinate people into a favourable position and not his aura, it's what helped him win three championships before. It was also a sore point with him and contributed to why he quit Glory in the first place.

While Liu Hao had the aura of a monster from Glory; something that was there but you could ignore if you wished to. Ye Xiu knew the real Liu Hao wouldn't like to know that he starred in a dream of Ye Xiu's but he couldn't control what he dreamt; it was the subconscious that did that work not Ye Xiu actively doing anything.

"Now, you shouldn't say that. Xiu had all the right to be here," said Su Muqiu, dressed in a black suit with red accents and a white shirt. It looked good on him. Ye Xiu forgot for a moment what he wanted to say. Swallowing a little bit Ye Xiu looked over the trio and then took in the place that he was standing in. He didn't think he could forget it. It was the Excellent internet cafe.

"Nostalgic, right?" asked Su Muqiu, as he came closer to Ye Xiu until he stood right next him, ignoring Wu Xuefeng's small smile and Liu Hao's huff.

Ye Xiu nodded and said, "Yeah, it's nice," and it was nice. It was much more relaxing than he would have thought being in Excellent internet cafe again. Perhaps he should go back again.

"How lucky that our great captain is spoilt like this. What would the others say if they saw this I wonder?" said Liu Hao sarcastically, standing off to the side but keeping watch over the trio and looked like he was trying to find a way to break them all up.

Ye Xiu ignored him.

"Where am I?" asked Ye Xiu, he might as well play along with his dream.

"Once upon a time, I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamt that I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly," Ye Xiu had the feeling that he recognised those words from somewhere but where? "I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhou. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is a necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things" quoted Su Muqiu.

"Master Zhuang, to do with existence" said Ye Xiu, remembering who wrote the poem and couldn't believe that he didn't remember before, the poem literally had his name in it twice.

"Correct, Master Zhuang wrote it," said Wu Xuefeng as he ruffled his hair making him duck his head to get out of it.

"Oh, come on, I'm not a kid anymore," said Ye Xiu.

"You'll always be our Captain Ye, Captain Ye,"

"Just get to the part where he signs the contract already," said Liu Hao. His voice spoiling the previously good environment.

"I suppose that I should. Come, sit," said Su Muqiu as he made Ye Xiu sit in a computer chair before sitting in a chair next to him with Wu Xuefeng and Liu Hao flanking him, "this is the velvet room!" he said while spreading his arms wide as if to show off a room in the Excellent internet cafe. Ye Xiu nodded to play along making an appropriate "Oooooh!"ing sound. He didn't think he needed to clap but he was sorely upset from the lack of velvet in the room, he figured that he subconscious could do that for him at least.

"Yes, yes, you're very impressed. It's very interesting, no? In the velvet room you can get personas. They're accounts that can help you fight and to get stronger accounts you need Wu Xuefeng and Liu Hao to help you,"

"Why can't you help me? Not that I'm not happy to see Wu Xuefeng and spend time with him but why can't you make stronger accounts for me?"

"How can I make stronger accounts when I'm not even real anymore?"

"Isn't this a dream?" asked Ye Xiu. Wu Xuefeng was smiling again but Liu Hao looked furious.

"What? Do we not matter to you enough that you wouldn't even let us level your accounts?" asked Liu Hao. Ye Xiu ignored him, only focusing on Su Muqiu.

"It is,"

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" shouted Liu Hao, he started to make threatening gestures towards Ye Xiu but Wu Xuefeng held him back.

"Then by dream laws you are real enough to help me," argued Ye Xiu. He didn't know if dream laws existed but he wanted Su Muqiu to help him once more.

"I can't I have a special role. I'm the overseer of this place and I'm here to guide you but to do that you need to sign the contract," Su Muqiu as he pulled out a set of contract papers from his suit. Where was he hiding that? That suit was too tight fitting for him to had a bunch of papers hidden away inside, "ah, don't worry about where this came from," he waved the contract around, "it's all Glory anyway,"

"Glory? Don't you mean magic?" asked Ye Xiu as he accepted the papers from Su Muqiu.

Su Muqiu hummed in agreement and said, "don't forget to sign them with your real name otherwise nothing will work," Ye Xiu looked down at the contract, it looked standard; nothing wrong with it and it was only a dream anyway. So, he grabbed a pen that Su Muqiu silently handed over as well, it was bright gold with the logo of Glory etched into the side and signed his name onto the contract where it was needed. His characters an odd mesh of a neat 'Ye' character and a messy 'Xiu' character.

"I hope you know what you got yourself into," muttered Liu Hao as he watched this happen.

"The contract is complete! Hopefully we'll see you soon!" said Su Muqiu happily, a wide smile on his boyish face just as he remembered. Ye Xiu looked at the trio; two happy and one discontent. But Liu Hao always seemed discontent with him so it was fine since his dreams seemed a little too weird and realistic after all. 

"Oh and before I forget, since I know you'll never get one, here," Su Muqiu reached into his magic suit (Ye Xiu was beginning to be sold on the idea of suits like Su Muqiu's if there was enough pockets in them, you could never have enough pockets) and pulled out a phone. Su Muqiu's phone to be exact.

"What?"

"You'll never buy a phone yourself so I just need to give you mine for now," said Su Muqiu, carefully taking Ye Xiu's right hand like it was the most precious thing in the world and placing his phone onto it before slowly letting go. He rubbed his thumb against the side of the phone, there were scratches along the side some superficial and others were dents from the times that Su Muqiu dropped his phone on the ground. Ye Xiu always joked that he should have bought a Nokia from how many times he dropped his phone.

However, Ye Xiu wasn't seeing the scratches and dents, he was looking at the shattered screen; the great large cracks on the phone that weren't there previously. Nobody knew where Su Muqiu's phone went after the crash. It either went in the gutter or someone took it and no matter how many times it was called nobody answered either. And they tried so many times.

"Please take care of it," said Su Muqiu and Ye Xiu just. Chocked up. He wasn't going to cry. But his chest -his chest was trying to take deep breathes and it wasn't working. It was lifting up- his diaphragm was expanding too- he was struggling to breath.

There was a wrestling from around him with short harsh whispers and Ye Xiu stared into orange brown eyes that looked yellow to him (but they were orange brown before-) as they pierced into his own. _The world has no never-ending feast_ he remembered that from Wu Xuefeng- he said that to him when he left-

"Shhh, Captain Ye. It's alright, I'm here, it's going to be okay. It always will," said Wu Xuefeng from somewhere nearby. There was a rubbing on his back, gentle but firm. He struggled out a laugh, though it was more like a bark.

And something soft covered him, blocking his line of sight. There was the smell of Wu Xuefeng as it covered him, something he remembered from the various hugs that the other man would sometimes give him stating that he reminded him of his brother.

"You can go embarrass yourself later when you're alone, right now it's embarrassing to even look at what once was the great God of Glory," said Liu Hao, his voice far away and getting further away by the second.

* * *

 

Ye Xiu realised as he woke up what was so jarring about his dream. Wu Xuefeng and Liu Hao were wearing the same jacket and pants. The EE jacket and pant set had changed in season 5 to something more modern looking and again in season 7 but they both wore the same one from season 7. It looked odd on Wu Xuefeng despite the fact if he was still on the team, he'd be wearing one.

In his hand was a phone.

Covered in many scratches and large cracks.

He'll discover this later.


	2. An adventure begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) a bit of warning for canon p5 violence. Oh and making smc cry. Sorry not sorry.
> 
> minor grammar edits: 18/8/2019

"You really think this is my brother's phone?" Su Mucheng was inspecting the phone in her hand, her fingers tracing the screen cover, her nails catching in the scratches and the screen threatening to cut her, and the childish sticker that clung to its back from when she put it on despite half of it being rubbed away and the corners putting up a valiant attempt to peel away from the back. It was a really old brand! Even compared to her phone, which was two years old! However, it certainly looked like her brother's phone, "Do you think we should hand it into the police?" she asked.

Ye Xiu shook his head, he too was staring at the miracle phone, "No, what are they going to do with it, return it to its owner? Even if they tried that wouldn't the phone just go right back to us? Why hassle the police with reports of a phone that disappeared seven years ago?"

"Well that's true...but are you sure this is my brother's phone?" she turned it on, a frown turning into black lines as she remembered how long it took to boot up. She had forgotten how long these brands of phones took! It was a blast into the past, and not in a good way either!

"I'm sure,"

"Then how did you get this?" she asked dubiously. It was certainly suspicious that her brother's phone would turn up now instead of eight years ago and it still looked the same apart from the cracked screen! Actually, she was surprised on how well it worked despite being cracked so much, this type of thing looked like it was going to spark at any moment.

"I got it in a dream,"

"What? A dream? Are you playing a trick on me?" asked Su Mucheng despite the fact that she knew he wasn't the sort to joke like that however getting items from dreams was...

Ye Xiu took a moment to light up a cigarette, mourning briefly that the pack contained only three left. There were many things that he could say to her but he could only tell her the truth, "Would I lie to you?"

Su Mucheng shook her head, "No," he never did lie to her even when he could have, "though you do avoid answering if you can like now," she pointed out. She looked at the apps on the phone and wanted to pull a face at what she saw. Honestly what kind of person was her brother to have so many games on it? Even foreign ones too! Was that a dating sim too?

"Haha, yeah, you got me. I would-" there was a knock on the door before Zhang Jiaxing poked his head in.

"Ah, Captain Ye, Cui Li wants you. Wei Shui wants you Senior Su. Something about the last interview?" said Zhang Jiaxing as he stood by the door. Everyone knew that the room that the two were in was Ye Qiu's training room signalled by the smell of cigarette smoke lingering around it, not anyone could just enter it since it had an aura of something important like Ye Qiu was going to PK you into submission if you even went one foot over the doorway.

"Ah, thanks," said Ye Xiu as he walked towards Zhang Jiaxing. It was best to get his scolding over and done with early than making Cui Li to wait.

"Wait-" said Zhang Jiaxing and Su Mucheng at the same time. The two looked at each other in surprise.

"Are you guys practicing being twins? You should know real twins don't speak at the same time or dress the same, some don't even look the same," said Ye Xiu already in the corridor.

"Senior Su, you go first," said Zhang Jiaxing, gesturing towards her to speak. It was only polite for him to do so since she was a girl.

"Thanks! But Ye Qiu, you forgot your phone," she extenuated her point by waving the said phone in her hand before walking to him. Zhang Jiaxing looked at the phone as well, wondering how his captain managed to scratch his phone that much that the whole thing was covered in them.

"You should take that to a phone repair place," said Zhang Jiaxing before he could stop himself.

"Nope, I'm rather attached to it as it is,"

"Broken screen and all?"

"Yep, I find it adds character,"

Zhang Jiaxing mouthed the words to himself, just to make sure that those were the correct words that he heard while Ye Xiu pocketed the phone and tossed some ash to the ground carelessly.

"You wanted to say something to Ye Qiu as well?" said Su Mucheng to remind Zhang Jiaxing of what he wanted to do as she waited next to Ye Xiu.

He blinked a few times before remembering, "Oh, right. Please don't smoke in the corridors captain, you know the rules," he lamely pointed out. He didn't mind the smell of cigarettes since he too smoked but they weren't technically allowed to smoke inside. Personally, he thought that they should be allowed to smoke inside but it wasn't up to him.

"Very well, I'll put it out," said Ye Xiu before walking back into the room for his ash tray. It wasn't actually his but when he started to smoke in the room it mysteriously showed up and nobody claimed it so he claimed it himself.

Zhang Jiaxing stood there for a bit. Mentally floundering before deciding to leave with a "see you both later," to quickly leave. It was always so awkward being in the same area as Ye Qiu for long periods of time especially after the last staff party. He still felt embarrassment after that long.

Su Mucheng watch him leave as fast as he could, a bright smile on her face, "You know he still feels embarrassed from that New Year party," she pointed out feeling amused.

"He hasn't said anything about it and I've tried talking to him about it but he just ran away like a rabbit," Ye Xiu sighed and walked back to Su Mucheng, his burnt out cigarette sitting in his ash tray ready to be lit again, "I don't think he's the type to push back if you push him so I can't pursue him to talk to him either. However as long as it doesn't affect his game play then I don't mind," it would have been better if he could just sit Zhang Jiaxing down and talk to him but it never happened. It was a bond that broke before it could properly form.

"Come on, we have to go,"

* * *

It started off as a normal day apart from the ominous aura in the air. He was playing Glory after waking up late-ish while Su Mucheng was doing advertising a few blocks away during the afternoon. However, it changed in the evening when Su Mucheng came to get him saying that it was time. Muqiu's phone was heavy with the weight that it was there in his pocket. Su Mucheng still didn't believe him fully that he got the phone from a dream but she was slowly starting to believe with each time he said where he got it from. He took it out to look at it.

When he left the building with only the clothes on his back and the various things hidden away in his pockets. Su Mucheng on his heels to convince him to at least get his things or let her pay for a hotel room for the night.

Instead they somehow got onto the conversation of Tao Xuan and how this all happened while he was playing around with some apps on the phone. He still hasn't discovered all the apps yet, some of them were foreign to him including one called "Meta Navi". It didn't seem to have much so it probably wasn't a game; or maybe it was a game, maybe the server shut down?

"Where do you think we are?" asked Su Mucheng as she frantically looked around. Ye Xiu wasn't any better. Just before all of _this_ happened it was normal outside. It was cold, it was snowing, he had just been forced to retire, Su Mucheng had come outside the building to rant at EE's poor treatment and he had his phone out. Then something happened. A mechanical voice called out and now they were here.

Here being somewhere weird.

The building itself seemed normal but the front proclaimed 'Excellent Era studios', and the normally large windows were televisions instead, showing ads for Su Mucheng and Sun Xiang, and had what seemed to be a massive radio tower on the top of it. He had to crane his neck to even just barely see the top of the radio tower. It was odd. All around them there were people but they were entirely grey with no mouths or eyes and no clothes too but it didn't seem indecent just weird, those parts were smoothed out like a plastic doll. It was creepy to look at. And they spoke despite those no eyes and mouths. They shouted things like, "Su Mucheng, please let me have your autograph!", "Sun Xiang! Sun Xiang!", and "Tao Xuan, please let us give you money!"

The front of the EE building up to the road was normal too apart from the crowd of grey, plastic dolls but from where there would be a McDonald's next door was just black haze like the smog in Beijing but heavier and darker, it was the same on the other side as well. The road looked semi-normal at least but it was still covered in He pulled Su Mucheng away from there when she went to touch it. The sky was a bright red that was blinding to look at for more than a few seconds at a time and black clouds trailed around like someone forgot to fill them out.

He looked at Su Mucheng, keeping her close so she wasn't dragged away by one of those human sized plastic dolls especially the one he thought was shouting about her, "I don't know," said Ye Xiu honestly, "though I don't think it's safe to be here, we should probably find a way out of here first before anything otherwise we might be stuck here,"

He didn't trust the sides so the only way to look around was inside. So carefully walking through the mob he tightened his grip on Su Mucheng, feeling her clasp right back, and walked through the sliding doors.

It was very weird. Behind the counter was the same plastic dolls but these ones had permanent smiling mouths done up with perfect lipstick but still no eyes. Towards the sides there were two buff male security guards with heavy looking batons on them. Ye Xiu knew this was wrong as there was two male assistants that worked behind the counter in real life and one female security guard. The guards in real life also didn't have batons on them, in fact they didn't have any weapons on them. The whole thing reminded him that Su Mucheng tried to make him watch with her; it was a stereotypical drama that didn't reflect reality at all.

"Hey, doesn't that one behind the counter look like Hui Waiting?" asked Su Mucheng, pointing towards one of the two plastic dolls but the one with short brown bob hair style. Ye Xiu squinted a bit but he could see the resemblance, it was just a little hard to tell with the lack of different facial features.

"I think so?" said Ye Xiu taking everything in before deciding what they should do next and said, "I think we should see if we can talk to these ones since they're less noisy," Su Mucheng looked dubiously at the front counter before sighing and conceding to Ye Xiu's logic.

She walked over to the counter with Ye Xiu behind her. Everything looked the same but it was hard to tell when everything that would have been glass was covered over by television screens or posters for her and Sun Xiang. It was very unsettling. In all the posters she looked younger and prettier in suggestive poses, and smiling happily but it was so _creepy_. Everything was edited so heavily like her skin was whiter than it was and the faint marks on her skin were gone. Everything was perfect and flashing constantly in her face. It wasn't her. Yet her name was written all over the posters and ads. She felt physically ill looking at them.

Stumbling over to Hui Waiting she tried to look into where the other woman's eyes should be but stopped after a bit as the doll stared straight ahead in a blank stare, "Hui Waiting? Hui Waiting? Are you Hui Waiting?" she asked the doll.

Su Mucheng let out a small scream and stumbled backwards as the doll sharply turned its head towards her in a way that said it was going to kill her in a murderous rampage. The lipstick smile on the doll widened and said, "Welcome Miss Su Mucheng," in a very feminine voice then turn towards Ye Xiu, "and guest. Please may the honourable guest sign in," and go out a clipboard with a pen for him to sign in. Su Mucheng glanced back towards Ye Xiu who shrugged and signed in. Su Mucheng watched his neat handwriting as it lingered upon the paper.

The Hui Waiting doll slowly collected the paper before staring at Ye Xiu and said, "This is not an honourable guest, Miss Su Mucheng. Ye Qiu is not allowed in Excellent Era Studios. You should know this," in a very sweet saccharine way. The other doll turned its head towards Ye Xiu as well.

"Huh? Why?" asked Su Mucheng. She was beginning to panic. The two guards on duty were slowly coming over as well, their plastic hands reaching for their batons.

"Miss Su Mucheng are you feeling okay? You usually don't ask so many questions," said Hui Waiting. Su Mucheng reached behind her to grab Ye Xiu's arm so they could get out of here. She wanted out, _yesterday_.

"Miss Su Mucheng, please let go of Ye Qiu. He is a threat. All threats must be brought before Chairman Tao Xuan." said the other doll, her long black hair done up in a stylish bun. Chills covered her body at those words; she was scared.

"No! I don't want to! We-we'll leave okay? We'll leave now," shouted Su Mucheng, trying to appease Hui Waiting. She noted that the guards were almost upon them. She ran. She ran towards the doors with Ye Xiu in hand. Her heels weren't that good for running in and Ye Xiu wasn't the most athletic either so the two guards were close and getting closer. She let go of Ye Xiu to wave her hands in front of the automatic doors while running. They weren't opening.

How could they not open? They were automatic!

She banged the glass doors as hard as she possibly dared. They didn't budge.

She shouted, "COme on! Let us out! PLEASE!", begging multiple times but instead of the doors opening she just saw the faceless crowd of grey mannikins; shouting her name and cameras flashing in her eyes that blinded her making white spots dance around her vision in random areas. She couldn't find a way out. Her fingers turned into claws as she slid down the doors.

Nothing.

There was a slamming sound behind her which made her turn around on her knees, the skin rubbing against the tiled floor. The two guards had pinned down Ye Xiu. They were beating him with their batons making him cry out while he was curled up, protecting his hands, for he knew if they got a single shot on his hands that was his plans for the future all over. He'd never be able to play Glory again.

She rushed towards them, practically sprinting as she lifted herself off the ground, and grabbed one by its arm with both hands just as it was going up, "NO! Stop it! Stop it! We're leaving! Stop hurting him!" she cried out, tears overflowing with the helplessness of their situation. The guard was strong. Too strong. Her feet left the ground when the guard raise his arm and made her collapse to the ground when he hit Ye Xiu again. He didn't even slow down either. She didn't know the worst part; the strength of the guard or her helplessness.

She let go to cover Ye Xiu with her body instead of trying to cling to the guard.

The guard stopped their assault on Ye Xiu, hesitant of any real harm coming to her. Su Mucheng praised any gods listening as underneath her Ye Xiu was wheezing as he struggled to breath, each breath an agony that he never felt before. Pain continued to wreck his nerves throughout his whole body from the bruised areas that the guards hit, even now the swelling had already started turning the red areas along his body into purple patches, and adrenaline had kicked in sending his heart rate soaring as small tremors rose in the wake of the terror and pain.

"I think this Miss Su Mucheng is a fake," said Hui Waiting from afar, her voice still in that pleasant tone that Su Mucheng was starting to hate. From the position that Su Mucheng was in she could see that Hui Waiting had come out of the counter and was walking towards them in an odd way, her legs weren't moving right, they slid across the floor in a way that said that she had no hips, she looked more like a doll than ever, "Chairman Tao Xuan would want to see them," her voice rang out between the gasps and groans of Ye Xiu. The guards grunted before she saw something from the corner of her eye as she witnessed a baton coming to her face and a split second, she knew what was coming but was powerless to stop the splitting pain that radiated from her head after the baton collided with it. She couldn't help the shout that left her mouth when it happened, this cause Ye Xiu shout underneath her as he too witnessed this happening and struggled underneath her to get her away from the guards again.

She was knocked out by the second attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to add more but I think the suspense of this so far is good.


	3. Together we won't smile when soldiers lay drunk on the battlefield pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a new character and plenty of smq for those who like him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pt. 1 of hopefully a 2 part chapter. Just mainly background on how this persona series is going to work since it's a very loose mash up of both, leaning more towards tka since this is mainly a tka fic, sorry to those reading from the persona side.

“Hey lazy head, how much longer are you going to be sleeping for? You have things to do.” said a voice from right next to his ear, making the voice ring out in his mind causing a headache to form. Ye Xiu blindly pushed the face away from him, having to raise partly off the couch to even get the face away from him, much to the protest of the said face.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Stoph thet!” shouted the voice from the floor.

“Muqiu, why are you shouting so early in the morning?” questioned Ye Xiu out aloud as he flopped back onto the couch he was resting on. It was lumpy from too many years in service and somehow the wood managed to dig into his side. He was well acquainted with it. He recognised the lumps and thin cushion under his head as the old couch from the Excellent Era internet café back when Tao Xuan used to let regulars get a few hours’ sleep on the thing from when they were too tired to go home.

“You know when I said hopefully, we’ll see you soon I didn’t mean this soon. You got knocked out.” said Su Muqiu disgruntled that his younger sister got dragged into this and moved to the side of the couch where he knew he wouldn’t get hit again.

“What do you mean?” asked Ye Xiu staring up at the ceiling, his eyes tracing the faint deformities of the white smooth surface. He felt like everything should hurt but it didn’t.

“You really fucked up this time Xiu. What made you think that such a high-ranking dungeon was a good idea?” Su Muqiu sighed, running a hand through his hair causing the locks to fall hazardously around his head but lucky for him it was short so it didn’t look so bad. From the corner of Ye Xiu’s eyes he could see Su Muqiu lean back as much as he dared on the arm of the couch. His hands fiddling in a familiar way that spoke that he needed a cigarette. Su Muqiu followed his eyes to his hands.

“Don’t even think about it. I don’t need a cigarette, you’re better off saving them for yourself.” He scolded. Ye Xiu didn’t even realise that his hands were searching for his carton yet.

“I was getting a cigarette for myself.” He said, and it wasn’t a lie. He just hadn’t thought of getting a cigarette for himself yet but knew that the words were true when he spoke them into existence. Su Muqiu gave him a disbelieving look but didn’t say anything either.

“I didn’t mean to get Mucheng in trouble.” He said regret heavy in his voice as he lit his cigarette, the familiar routine was soothing to his tired body. The first breath in full of familiar smoke made his body relax in a way he didn’t even notice was tense until the lumps in the couch were apart of him and he was a part of the couch, the cigarette dangling from his loose hand.

“I know. You wouldn’t knowing put Mucheng in any danger but it doesn’t mean that I can’t be upset over it. Besides I don’t want you in danger as well, you are family too even if we don’t share blood.”

“Yeah. I know.”

The silence rang out in the room. It wasn’t uncomfortable but neither was it comfortable; it merely _was_. Nothing seemed to touch it. Not the shuffling of clothes from Su Muqiu as he moved around to get as comfortable as he could without falling over or the almost quiet sound of Ye Xiu’s breaths as he released the smoke from his lungs. It was the type of situation that if a person was to think of their past, they would summon all the regrets that they ever had. Ye Xiu didn’t though. He was thinking of how to find Su Mucheng since she didn’t seem to be with him. They were much safer together than separated.

“Do you know if Mucheng is safe?” he asked. He needed more information.

“No. I don’t know anything beyond what you would.”

“So, you’re tied to me?”

“Yeah, I’m tied to your ugly face.”

“I remember you saying that my face wasn’t ugly.”

“I lied.” Deadpanned Su Muqiu. Ye Xiu took another drag of his cigarette, taking his eyes off of Su Muqiu briefly to watch as the grey smoke drifted slowly to the ceiling before dispersing leaving only the smell behind. Su Muqiu sighed.

“Would it kill you to get an ash tray?”

“I don’t know where an ash tray is.”

“The same place as it always been; next to the computers.”

“But I’m on the couch right now, the ash tray is too far away.”

“You know that Brother Tao hates it when you put out cigarettes on the floor.”

“Fine. I’ll get up.” Said Ye Xiu as he went towards the ash tray, dodging Su Muqiu who was cross-legged on the ground, who was probably ruining his very nice suit in the process. It was odd; seeing Su Muqiu like this, in a fancy suit that looked like it could have come from his previous life. It didn’t really suit him; jeans and tee shirts did. Ye Xiu didn’t say a word about this though. Ye Xiu went through the rest of his cigarette watching it get shorter and shorter as he inhaled the dangerous chemicals that stimulated him.

“Here.” Said Su Muqiu. Ye Xiu took his eyes off of the cigarette to look back at Su Muqiu. He was holding an account card, an old one. Ye Xiu took it automatically, putting his cigarette out.

“This is?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten our child already?”

“I don’t have children; I only have an adopted sister.”

“Our kid will be crying if he was real.” Said Su Muqiu jokingly, and because he was a bit of a dick, he started to nuzzle the account card. “Poor Lord Grim, don’t worry your father will still love you.”

“This is exactly why you didn’t have any real friends until I met you.” Stated Ye Xiu will the full confidence that Su Muqiu was a huge nerd. He walked back to the couch, nudging Su Muqiu with his foot as he did so, which Su Muqiu countered with a kick towards his legs making Ye Xiu jump to dodge them. Each man had a grin on their face.

“The reason I didn’t have any ‘real’ friends was because you chased them away with your attitude,” Su Muqiu shot back.

“They couldn’t handle trash talk, besides you used them to test your skills in different games before I even showed up. You couldn’t tell that they weren’t getting any better using your method.”

“And your method of PKing them until they had to give up was any better?” accused Su Muqiu, a smirk on his youthful face told Ye Xiu that he was only joking.

“They learnt how to play the games that way.”

“You’re going to take our kid or not?” sighed Su Muqiu as he waved around the account card.

“Give.”

“Oh, now you want him”

“It’s a free account card, why were you even asking if I wanted it; it’s money I could be spending on cigarettes.”

“Those things are going to kill you.”

“They won’t kill me before I finish being a pro so it’s fine.”

Su Muqiu sighed again and held up the card for the taking, “Just take our kid before I hit you.” Ye Xiu quickly swiped it where it quickly went into the folds of his jacket, tucked away with the other important things.

“Plug him in,”

“What?”

“Put him in the card reader, you should at least have a look at him from the many years that he’s been sitting in your jacket pockets.”

“How do you know about that?”

“I’m always watching, don’t you remember? I’m the ghost at your back always ready to help.” Ye Xiu stared at Su Muqiu for a moment before turning away.

“Fine.” He said before he sat down at a computer and logged in. Tao Xuan always kept the passwords to the computers under the keyboards of each computer and rotated between passwords for the computers. It got to a point where Ye Xiu could just guess the password to the computer since he spent so many years at Excellent Era internet café. He logged into Glory and placed the account card in.

The screen turned black.

“Muqiu? What’s- arugh!” it was like something was trying to bury itself deep within his mind. It felt like laying the foundations of a new building--  
like miners looking for oil--  
like a slack rope trick gone wrong with one false step spelling his death--  
like finding a new family after burying the old one.

“Call my name! I am the one long forgotten but not unloved; I am you and you are me, together we shall pave a new way to Glory. I am the one who doesn’t smile; the one from the start, I am Lord Grim!” echoed throughout his head leaving him with a splitting headache making him nearly fall off the chair.

“Lord Grim?” asked Ye Xiu through the pain, something felt right about that; calling Lord Grim by his name. Ye Xiu panted as he realised he had collapsed onto the table, the screen was back to normal and the account card was still there making Ye Xiu question if it was just an illusion; a trick of the mind.

“You okay?”

“I’ll be fine, just let me stay like this for a moment.” Begged Ye Xiu as he rested his head on his arms. The next few moments were filled with only the sound of Ye Xiu’s haggard breaths.

“It’s time to leave, you’re waking up” Said Su Muqiu apologetically as he slowly got up from the ground, Ye Xiu watched as his body unfurled from his position until he was standing again. The suit jacket hid the curves and dips of Su Muqiu’s body from sight but Ye Xiu knew they were there even if they couldn’t be seen.

“How do I leave?” asked Ye Xiu.

“You have two legs, just walk out the door. It’s not that hard.”

“I assumed there was a special way of exiting here since I was knocked out.”

“You think you’re in a video game or something? That’s not how this works, there’s rules that we need to follow to make sure you come out safe.”

Ye Xiu got up. His hand running along the seat, taking in the patches where the fabric has attempted to separate from each other without much success. It was time to leave again.

“Bye Muqiu.” Ye Xiu said as he walked out the door again.

Just as he passed the frame, he swore he heard a “Good luck,” come from Su Muqiu but he wasn’t quite sure.

* * *

 

Ye Xiu woke up on a couch under harsh bright lights with a splitting headache.

He originally didn't know where he was when he woke up but everything hurt. It seemed so foreign to him but then he remembered Excellent Era, Hui Waiting, the guards; the dolls.

Looking around properly he noticed that the room he was in was usually used for meeting new recruits in Excellent Era. He had seen it before even if he had never personally been in there before since he was recruited before they moved to the new building. He would sometimes see the new training camp members enter nervously before they realised that had been accepted into the training camp.

It was distinct because it was the most intimidating place out of the whole building; it was designed that way with its blank windowless dark grey walls, just dark enough for the room to feel smaller than it actually was, and spacious interior. It spoke nothing of what it actually meant to be in Excellent Era and felt more like a prison instead.

He slowly got up, the aches and pains in his body telling him that he wasn’t ready to do anything but lay down for a couple of days and just sleep. He peeled his jumper and shirt up to inspect the damage. Dark purple bruises littered his sides surrounded by yellowish green and red. He grimaced. That really didn’t look good and he didn’t know if he had enough money in his savings to cover a hospital fee. He had been a little too generous with his spending this year with the increased number of cigarettes he has smoked, the money he used to cover bills when nobody else seemed to be paying, and the amount of take away he’s eaten. He had hoped that he could make up for the money this season but it wasn’t to be.

He doesn’t even want to know how badly this was going to affect his gaming.

He hobbles over to the door and tests it, finding it locked. There isn’t much that he’s able to do in the room, the only other exit is a ventilation shaft along the top of the room and, while he’s slightly athletic so he could keep his body in peak condition, he’s not that athletic that he could climb through a ceiling ventilation shaft whilst injured.

He lays back down on the couch, trying to find a place that doesn’t hurt as much, before going boneless. He still needs to find Su Mucheng, she’s somewhere around and he doesn’t know where. He waits a while knowing that if they kept him in the meeting room then someone is going to talk to him. It’s after fifteen minutes that someone comes by, it’s an odd sound that Ye Xiu only knows from his childhood; the sound of paws against tile. It came to a stop where something sniffed loudly and pawing at the door. A dog?

Ye Xiu got up again and made his way to the door.

“Captain Ye?” asked something beyond the door, it sounded familiar and young but he couldn’t exactly tell; there was a high pitched to it that made it seem a little different.

“Who?”

“Good, you’re in here. I thought my nose was wrong. Can you open the door? My hands aren’t good for that.”

“It’s locked.”

“Oh. Okay. Stand back then.”

Ye Xiu moved away from the door, off to the side and waited. He wasn’t too sure if it was even safe to but it was probably better than staying the room waiting for the dolls to come back, though he wasn’t even sure if the animal thing outside his room was a friend or foe but for now it seemed like a friend.

There was a small bang against the door like someone banged their shoulder against it before Ye Xiu could barely hear the word: “Fighting”, though there was another part to it that he couldn’t hear.

The door burst open in shards of wood, plaster, metal and dust as a _spear_ burst through the edge of it. In a normal person’s situation, they would probably have exclamation marks running throughout their mind at the fact that the sharp end of spear had just made a door almost collapse. What went through Ye Xiu’s mind was: That’s an under levelled spear. This wasn’t because he lacked any type of self-preservation but because his mind was always on Glory. The spear poking out of the door was a Level 1 spear called Training Spear. The spear faded as a few seconds went by.

“You okay?” called the voice.

“Yes.”

“You can go through now.”

Ye Xiu pushed open the door once he realised that the attack had been on the lock and the part of the wall that the lock had been attached to. He pushed it open to look at his saviour. It was a large dog, the top of it coming up to Ye Xiu’s hips, carrying a Training Spear and wearing a form of leather armour. It blinked its big brown eyes at him as it wagged its tail, the end of it hitting the floor with every shake.

“Captain Ye!” he shouted, according to the low hanging fruit that showed under his armour. Ye Xiu wanted to lay back down on the couch and fall asleep again just to get rid of the image.

 “You are…”

“Call me Qiu! I’m going to get you out of here!”

“…a dog.” Ye Xiu almost felt bad about saying that since the dog –Qiu— stopped wagging his tail and stared his eyes are him like he did something to wrong him, which technically he did, but he would like it if Qiu would stop looking so upset. It reminded him of his childhood dog, Dot, who gave puppy dog eyes whenever Ye Xiu wronged him.

“I might look like a dog but I’m not really,”

“Then what are you?”

“I--” Qiu paused as he let his spear tilt downwards until the tip almost reached the ground. Ye Xiu was pretty sure you weren’t meant to have spears down that low in case you broke the tip but didn’t say anything. “I’m not sure, but I know I’m not a dog.”

“By any chance do you know where Mucheng is?”

“Su Mucheng is here as well?”

“You know her?”

Qiu nodded his head, “I haven’t seen her but I haven’t checked the higher floors.”

From what Ye Xiu could remember the interview room was on the 2nd floor with another 5 floors to look for Su Mucheng, though one floor was the living quarters for the main and second-string members to live on. Su Mucheng had her own wing since she was the only girl on the team; the rest of the female players were trainees who had come through.

“I need to get her out of here.”

“Don’t worry I’ll come with you so I can protect you!”

Ye Xiu stared at the dog before looking at the hole in the wall and nodded. Dog or not he could protect others.

“How did you do that?” asked Ye Xiu as he pointed to the hole.

“I used my Persona attack!” said Qiu, wagging his tail again.

“Persona attack?”

Qiu nodded.

“Yes, it’s a special power that you can use in the palaces!”

“How do you do it?”

“You have an account card that you need to register, once it’s activated it causes the account to be bound to you and allows you do use the skills attached to the account to attack, you just need to say the account’s name.”

“Like Lord Grim?” asked Ye Xiu before a white light surrounded him and the Glory login page spawned in front of his eyes before it went away. In his hand was an umbrella, looking down his outfit had changed as well into something more fantasy like.

“You can summon as well?”

“I didn’t know that I could.”

“You just got your persona?”

“Yeah, I just remembered it.” Qiu looked like he was going to say something but perked up instead.

“We have a couple of mobs coming our way, we should go find Su Mucheng.” Said Qiu before he scuttled away on his small feet, running past Ye Xiu as he headed away from the elevator. “You coming?” asked Qiu, tilting his head as he looked at Ye Xiu.

“Yeah, we have to go get Su Mucheng.”

He lightly jogged after Qiu, hoping that he can get there in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for the slight shift in writing style, my writing style has unfortunately evolved between this chapter and the last; for better or for worse. Please don't look too closely at Qiu, he's trying his best.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe one day I'll finish this :)  
> Who knew that I like angst and breaking characters ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Also persona is largely based upon the poem by Zhuangzi (Master Zhuang) hence why using it, what's the point of making a crossover fic for persona and tka if I'm not actually actively using it? Seems like a waste not to use it with tka's love of poems and the poem inspired game.


End file.
